When the spirit is melted, and the heart touched by a sense of God's goodness, mercy, and love to such base, undeserving wretches, it produces gospel obedience, aye, a 'humble obedience', not that 'proud obedience' which those manifest who are trusting to their own goodness and seeking to scale the battlements of heaven by the ladder of self-righteousness, but an obedience of gratitude, love, and submission, willingly, cheerfully rendered, and therefore acceptable to God, because flowing from His own Spirit and grace.
It is the application of this divine balm which purifies the heart, makes sin hateful, and Jesus precious--and not only dissolves the soul in sweet gratitude, but fills it with earnest desires to live to God's honor and glory. This is the mysterious way the Lord takes to get honor to Himself. As He opens up the depth of sin and the fall, makes the burden of sin felt, and shows the sinner his enormous iniquities--He brings the proud heart down, and lays the head low in the dust. And as He makes him sigh and cry, grieve and groan; He applies His sovereign balm to the soul, brings the blood of sprinkling into the conscience, sheds abroad His mercy and love, and thus constrains the feet to walk in cheerful and willing obedience.
This is obeying the precept from right motives, right views, right influences, under right feelings, and to right ends. This is the true Christian obedience, obedience "in the spirit and not in the letter," an obedience which glorifies God, and is attended by every fruit and grace of the Spirit. Thus, wondrous to say, the more we see and feel of the depth of the malady, the more do we prize, as God is pleased to show it, the height and blessedness of the remedy; the lower we sink in SELF, the higher we rise in CHRIST; the more we see of our sinful nature, the more we admire the grace of God; the more we are harassed, and tried, and distressed by our sin, the more suitable and precious, and God-glorifying is the gospel of the grace of God.
So that the more we sink into the ruins of the fall, the higher we rise experimentally into the knowledge of the gospel of the grace of God. And all this attended, when it is genuine, by the fruits of the Spirit, a spiritual obedience, a glorifying God, a separation from the world, and as the Lord enables, a glorifying Him in body, soul, and spirit, which are His.
Here, then, is the answer to the prophet's question, "Is there no balm in Gilead?" Yes, there is! blessed be God--the blood of Jesus and the sweet promises of the gospel.
"Is there no physician there?" Yes! blessed be God, there is, a wise, a mighty, yes, an Almighty, an all-sufficient Physician!
"Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" If not recovered, it is only delayed and delays are not denials. The time will come, the appointed season will roll round, and then every hindrance will be removed. If it be the world, some affliction will be sent to wean the heart from it. If an idol, the hand of God will take it away or destroy its power. If it be a temptation, God will deliver from it, or make a way of escape that the soul may be able to bear it. If unbelief prevails, He will overcome it, and give faith a victory over it. If there be any lust indulged, He will purge the heart from its power and prevalence.
So that our wisdom and mercy alike, is to fall into His compassionate hands, to renounce our own righteousness, to acknowledge that we have nothing in ourselves but filth and folly, and thus to seek His face, to call upon His name, to hope in His mercy, and rest in His goodness; and, as He may be pleased to shine upon the soul, to thank and praise His holy name for the mercy He displays in Christ to the vilest of the vile.
Here, then, is the answer to this important question, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" Blessed be God, there is both one and the other. "Why then is not the health of the daughter of God's people recovered?" It is already accomplished in the mind of God, and will be made experimentally manifest in His own time and way. Philpott
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